"What I ended up with is a competent, reliable, flexible, and most importantly, an affordable adventure capable bike that retains all of the great aspects of the DL; bullet proof reliability, beautifully smooth motor/clutch interface, and, it’s inexpensive on the secondary market."

can't see anything wrong with that, did the same thing myself, although a different platform.

forget the naysayers, build what you want.

Right on JDRocks, tune out the negativity. I say it's my bike I'll do what I want with it.

Here are a few more pictures from our September Colorado ride. Having ridden with oldhound59 a few times on his stock DL650 I can say this upgrade rocked the trail like never before. Everything seemed easier for him on this trip….except putting his feet down

One thing that would make a huge improvement to make the Stroms more offroad capable is a set of 21" and 17" (18"?) SPOKE wheels to replace the heavy and fragile cast rims.

Affordable wire wheels that is.

Woody can make a great set of wheels but I can't afford that.

RAD makes hubs for the Stroms but again, they are out of my price range.

My plan is to use the wheels from a 91 DR650 parts bike if I can make them work, but I haven't measured to see if it is even possible.

Maybe Warp 9?...

Spoke wheels would be a great item for your Strom Kits, I believe.

Flats are considerably rare events but still occur now and then. To patch a flat on Wee wheels is a simple job, as on ordinary tubeless tires.
Fitting spoke wheels will mean to patch a flat, one has to pull the wheel off the bike; on the Wee it is a bit more complicated than on any real DS, especially lighter, bikes; then get the tube out, put a new one in, and put the wheel back in. Breaking the bead might have been more or equally difficult/easy job as on proper DS bikes, depending on the wheel used. However, in case of a flat, one still need to carry a spare tube, a set of tire irons and probably a bead breaker. A tube plus a tire irons set easily equals a 1 kg mass, which somewhat mitigates mass economy gained on spoke rims/hubs.
Another thing to consider is safety, a flat of a tube wheel doing a HWY might mean serious crush with according consequences to the rider, the same event of a tubeless tire usually means a delay in travel time only.
No doubt, there are tubeless spoke wheels, but the price of them bites.
Anyway, changing the front fork, triple tree, brake, and wheel to DR650 or equal set is easy and considerably cheap and gains something in off road ability, therefore makes some sense. Plus, flats on front occur 10 times less than on the rear.
Changing the rear gains nothing, but look of a “proper DS” bike, therefore to me it is waste of money/effort and a serious degrade performance/maintenance wise.

Changing the rear gains nothing, but look of a “proper DS” bike, therefore to me it is waste of money/effort and a serious degrade performance/maintenance wise.

Actually, depending on the size and width of the rear rim you go to, you could greatly improve your choice of off road oriented tires. In the stock 150/70-17 sizes, choices are limited for sure. The TKC80 is obviously a popular choice, but it wears quickly and is an expensive tire. Heidenau has the K60 which isn't quite as aggressive as the TKC, but lasts way longer. Mita has a few, but again shipping is expensive from Canada and choices are still somewhat limited. Going down to a 130-17 in the rear greatly improves the selection or better yet, going to an 18" means even more choices.

So I don't think its quite as cut and dry as you gain nothing from going to a different size rear rim as tire choices are a big part of this!

Going down to a 130-17 in the rear greatly improves the selection or better yet, going to an 18" means even more choices.

No doubt here. But what gonna happen with "proper DS" look? The Wee swing arm and huge/long hull easy accommodates a car tire, a 130/80-17 will be lost there. 18 wheel mostly do not have cushion rubbers in them...

I agree on the spoked wheel setup. More aggressive dirt tires are available in the 130-140 sizes, Stonger setup for off road use. If you destroy the cast rim, NO plug kit will seal a cracked rim, you may have to put a tube in the rim anyways just to get moving. We can change tubes out when needed on our 950 ADV rims on the trail and this will be no differant. Pinch flats really only happen when running stupid low pressures in rugged terrain, in any case I would prefer a pinch flatted tube, than a cracked wheel. This is a Dual Sport bike, not a Dakar bike and not a MX bike. I tend to travel at more reasonable pace when out exploring or traveling with luggage and camping gear. Having a bullet proof wheel setup helps and that's why I prefer spokes.

We used what we had at the time to get this on the trail. A 17" spoked and 18" spoked "CUSH DRIVE option will be ready for testing as soon as I get my lathe moved to the shop to work on a some spacers. Rear Brake rotor, cush drive and hub/ rim setup is done for a 17" wheel test. We are working with Warp 9 to make this a production rear wheel option in the future.

And, if you want to run street rubber you can put the CAST 17" rear rim back on and put on a matching front too.

Now if the snow/ice goes away this weekend, we might be able to get more REKLUSE EXP testing in and maybe even the new REAR wheel setup.

I agree on the spoked wheel setup. More aggressive dirt tires are available in the 130-140 sizes, Stonger setup for off road use. If you destroy the cast rim, NO plug kit will seal a cracked rim, you may have to put a tube in the rim anyways just to get moving. We can change tubes out when needed on our 950 ADV rims on the trail and this will be no differant. Pinch flats really only happen when running stupid low pressures in rugged terrain, in any case I would prefer a pinch flatted tube, than a cracked wheel. This is a Dual Sport bike, not a Dakar bike and not a MX bike. I tend to travel at more reasonable pace when out exploring or traveling with luggage and camping gear. Having a bullet proof wheel setup helps and that's why I prefer spokes.

We used what we had at the time to get this on the trail. A 17" spoked and 18" spoked "CUSH DRIVE option will be ready for testing as soon as I get my lathe moved to the shop to work on a some spacers. Rear Brake rotor, cush drive and hub/ rim setup is done for a 17" wheel test. We are working with Warp 9 to make this a production rear wheel option in the future.

And, if you want to run street rubber you can put the CAST 17" rear rim back on and put on a matching front too.

Now if the snow/ice goes away this weekend, we might be able to get more REKLUSE EXP testing in and maybe even the new REAR wheel setup.

Exactly my thinking.
Cast wheels are fine on the street.
That is great news about the (future) spoke wheel option with Warp 9.
I am very happy with my Warp 9 front wheel (DR650 street tracker).

A Rekluse EXP will be a fantastic option for a Wee Adventure bike!

__________________Attitude ~The difference between
Ordeal and Adventure James

So does anybody know if any of this stuff will work with a V-Strom 1000?

I don't know for sure, but when looking up parts I think most of the front end parts are the same, (at least bearing sizes) I would not be surprised if the frame is very close too. But I don't know 100% yet. We'll need a 1000 to try it out on. I have a feeling it would be a pretty simple install on the 1000 also once I get this all sorted out.